Which is truth, LocalFalcon or Whitespark?

[dunkindeezer]

Hi

I am seeing significantly different rankings on LocalFalcon as I do in WhiteSpark.

Which is more accurate?

 

[JoyHawkins]

Interesting. Can you share details about the keyword and location it's scanning from?

 

[whitespark]

Darren here from Whitespark. There is no "truth" in ranking data. You can set up 5 different tools and then also check your results manually and you can see 6 different results.

This is because rankings are in constant fluctuation and because the results that Google returns vary by so many nuanced details:
- Time of day that the search was run
- Browser
- Device
- Location setting
- IP address
- History of searches from that IP

So, you can definitely expect to see different results between Whitespark and Local Falcon on just one of those data points alone: location setting.

In Whitespark, you probably have the location set to the city centroid or a specific zip code. In Local Falcon, the location will be set to the precise location of the business address. Guaranteed different results.

But all the other factors will impact the search results too.

So while I said at the beginning of this reply that there is no truth in rankings, the reality is actually that they are all true. All the search result data that the tools get back from Google and that you would get back from a manual search are "true". They are exactly what Google would return based on those precise search parameters, which are always different depending on the setup of the search and the time/date.

TL;DR: both Whitespark and Local Falcon are correct and accurate.

 

[Tony Wang]

@whitespark the factors you mention are true, but I think grid trackers like Localfalcon set the location to be at each respective grid point, that's the reason for the grid. So location would not be a factor in that case.

 

[whitespark]

@whitespark the factors you mention are true, but I think grid trackers like Localfalcon set the location to be at each respective grid point, that's the reason for the grid. So location would not be a factor in that case.

If you are comparing Whitespark and local falcon and trying to determine which one is “correct”, then location is probably the biggest factor. In Whitespark you would set the location to a zip code, whereas in local falcon you would be looking at rankings at specific points, and they are guaranteed to be different. Guaranteed to be different because the location setting is completely different.

 

[fisicx]

Use any ranking tool as a guide only. Use them to test trends rather than actual rank.

 

[Tony Wang]

@whitespark yes that's true. But I wasn't clear; what I meant to say was that location wouldn't be a factor of inaccuracy for LocalFalcon results because each grid point represents a search from that particular point. The location of the business address is only used for the center of the grid. I wasn't comparing Whitespark with LocalFalcon. And of course no tool gives absolute results.